Because it's another culture.Last night National Geographic, Taboo, featured the different types of food eaten by the various cultural groups around the world. The French eat horse meat, a particular tribe in Venezuela, spiders. One group takes drinks together with the snake's heart, still thumping, while another eats partially formed ducks. My cousins and I grimaced as we watched in horror how they prepared and tasted their food as if they were so very moreish.
Or maybe to them, they really are.
But you are instantly filled with disgust and you shudder as you watch them put the food into their mouths. You wonder how they even manage to do that.
And you never stopped to think that some other cultural group out there may find the Asians' diet revolting too.
Then you come to realise that cultures, the templates for living, are such interesting things which differ from group to group. They tell us who we are, what groups we belong to, and how we live our lives.
In essence, cultures distinguish the members of one group from another. They are learnt, shared, mutlifaceted, dynamic and overlapping.
There on Taboo, a baby in his mother's arm was biting into a spider. He ate it as normally as how an Asian baby would chew on a piece of roast chicken, say. At times, the group would get together to cook the spiders and then eat collectively - acting to group norms, sharing their same culture. However, since cultures are dynamic, the people may no longer be eating spiders ten years down the road.
Of course, with cultures come the barriers to intercultural communication. People stereotype and start to become prejudiced. We generalise the beliefs by which we make sense of the world around us, regardless of context and accuracy and there can be negative social attitudes held towards another group. There is also the assumption of similarity, anxiety and withdrawal, as well as ethnocentrism, the belief that one's culture is superior to all others and the tendency to judge others by one's own criteria.
My take is that while it is good to have cultural groups, it is important that they accept the others for what they are and not stereotype or judge.
Good stuff! Though i didnt catch the programme but the brief intro gave me some background knowledge of it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that people should not stereotype nor judge others. One should start to accept and understand the different cultures and beliefs.
I agree totally that we should all learn to accept each other and that some groups think of themselves as better and thus do not accept others.
ReplyDeleteI also believe that what people need to start doing is to exchange cultures that enables people to understand why people do things and thus will cut down alot on stereotyping and prejudice.. At the same time character and moral values should be apart of culture so as to turn people into people that can think and see things from different views instead of straightforward selfish and biased views.
Eng Siong:
ReplyDeleteWe all seek acceptance. But our motivations vary. Sometimes acceptance comes through conformity while other times it comes from breaking boundaries and creating our own path. Thus, I believe that we are in no position to stereotype or judge.
it is human nature to judge people. this is what first impression does.
ReplyDeletedespite all the talk about not judging a book by its cover, not everyone can do it. and i dare say, im one of this people.
but what we can do is to minimise such occurences from happening. i was horrified to see the young boy eating the spider like it was no big deal. to me, it is. he was eating a taranchula for crying out loud!
but what is strange and disturbing to us, is normal to them.
in short, this is culture.
different culture has different things and traditions. this is what make them different from the others.
for all we know, the tribe which eats spiders
might find people strange for eating chickens.
but im grateful to the media, for pointing out the fact that it is a taboo as most might consider, and brought it up to all. allowing us to understand and learn more about the other cultures, so that we can try to stop looking at them in a different view.
Differing cultures hinders intercultural communication.
ReplyDeleteJust take a look at our perception of China, and we will clearly understand why. People in China literally drain the juice out of a monkey's brain as a local delicacy, and whip and torture a living dog for its meat. Such disturbing actions are deemed acceptable and completely normal in the chinese culture. However, many outside the borders of China are completely disgusted by such acts, including myself. Such acts have resulted in us stereotyping all China citizens as inhumane and uncivilized.
With such mentality instilled in us, we are encouraged us to disassociate ourselves from any of them and to avoid any form of communication with them. Such discrimination have in turn, resulted in a breakdown in intercultural communication between us and people from China.
Thats my view, at least (:
to me, eating insects and eating internal body parts of innocent animals is disgusting. i cant imgaine eating snake's heart, cricket, or even monkey brains! gosh.. we should be more receptive of the other cultures, i agree. and it takes generations to accept gay marriages, what more, culture.
ReplyDeleteYes, we should accept others for what they are no matter how different they are from us (: Perhaps eating insects and animals are what they were taught since young and thus, they don't see any problem doing it. Of course, if we were to ask someone to eat it in Singapore, he/she wouldn't even dare because it will seem disgusting, and it certainly take a lot of courage to eat it too since we don't eat these kind of food. Furthermore, it could be due to the fact that these countries were just too poor to get proper food and thus have to choice but turn to others, such as insects.
ReplyDeletei just love seeing others eating those unbelievable food that i thought can't be eaten. i will go ewww and yucks but if given a chance i would love to give it a try!
ReplyDeleteit's just food anyway. what goes in will come out. though not immediately.
thank god there is religions and cultures. yes, there's a lot of controversies and conflicts over it.
but come to think of it, religions and cultures actually make us different and unique and interesting.
without difference in our upbringing, do you think Paris with its Parisian way of life would still be interesting to us? or would we want to emigrate to Canada if its way of life is the same as Singapore's?
we strive to be different even before we were born. we are the sperms who made it to our mothers' eggs before another sperm could.
we are different as we have the will to swim faster and harder than the others just to come into this world.
KIA said, It is interesting to find out more about these fun facts which i had never imagined. However, at the same time, i believe that ALL people deserve the right to eat proper food, especially kids in these countries.
ReplyDeleteyeah i like your analysis on culture -it both distinguishes us as unique beings, which is a good thing, since everybody requires some sort of identity (which in turn provides security in a social system) -at the same time culture also breeds differences that are the basis for stereotypes and prejudices. i think its inevitable in any social order that 'cultures' or 'sub-cultures' exist, and what is perhaps best for us is to examine these cultures with an objective lense -to try to understand, and not censure differences.
ReplyDeletemaybe you can talk more about the differences in culture and a comparison between those we embrace and those we shun
ReplyDeleteHi minzhi!
ReplyDeleteI like this entry!
Yes I definitely think that we should all try to avoid ethnocentrism. Keeping an open mind and being more receptive to cultures different from our own can do us no harm, only we good. We should take it as a learning experience, and not be so quick to judge things which we do not understand.
Actually, them eating such 'weird delicacies' are similar to us eating chickens, ducks and etc. As the post stated, it's just another culture. We wondered how they manage to eat just like how some wonder why Singaporeans love Durians. Hmmm... I would love to try those food if I have the chance. Good or bad; an experience nonetheless.
ReplyDeletedifferent places have different cultures, that sometimes it is not because they love their culture so much that they stick to it, cos at times it might be one of their survival ways
ReplyDeleteAgree ! Mutual understanding and acceptance of different culture is impt.
ReplyDeleteYet when it comes to survival instincts, true enough one's disgust may become one's delicacy. You might have once never allow those past your lips under normal circumstances but speaking of which, what if shoving those 'delicacies' down your throat could be your only mean to survive? So, I would say, different people different perspectives.
ReplyDeleteto Pooh:
ReplyDeleteyes, who knows what others might think of our culture right?
to ebullienttard:
same here!
to Adrian seetho:
woo a pretty good point you've brought up! perhaps that's why we start to stereotype them too?
to Breda :
yeah, after all we are sometimes forced to do what we do by circumstances too ehs.
to Kwan Pingkan :
yes, but it's sometimes hard to be objective isn't it, especially when we're already so grossed out.
to Anonymous:
noted, thanks!
to alicia nicole :
thanks dear! yes, i agree with you!
to Cong Wen :
yes, it all only boils down to culture uh.